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Subscription-based music-streaming service Deezer has announced the launch of a free, ad-supported version of its service in Ireland as part of the roll out of the service in more than 150 countries.

Deezer has also garnered 3m paying subscribers, just 2m less than its main competitor Spotify, which recently announced that it had reached 5m paid subscribers and 20m users.

Deezer is anticipating that its new ad-supported music streaming service will reach a potential audience of at least 600m people. The company has also unveiled Deezer4Artists, a new platform to allow artists create and customise content in order to interact more with fans.

View of Deezer4Artist page

Deezer had hinted at the free service in October when the service obtained US$130m in funding from Access Industries.

"For the first time, all barriers to music discovery and reach have been completely lifted. This is a very significant moment for both music lovers and for artists," said Deezer's CEO Axel Dauchez.

"We will allow fans all around the world to enter the musician's creative universe, discovering new and exciting content, ultimately enhancing their enjoyment of music," he added.

As part of the new freemium model Deezer will offer users in Ireland a discovery period of one year of unlimited ad-supported, free listening on PCs and laptops.

Deezer will also offer Irish users two hours per month of free listening on PCs and laptops for life, once their discovery period is over.

By giving users free access to Deezer's catalogue of 20m songs, Deezer is anticipating that users will be temped to switch to the subscription model.

"Our ad-supported service is a necessary trigger to drive global change by bringing music subscription to mass audiences worldwide. Our aim here is to encourage music fans to try us, driving ad-supported service listeners to switch to paid subscription over time," said Dauchez.

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